This invention relates to a device for feeding cattle or other animals. There are already known devices of the kind comprising a fodder delivery conduit provided with fodder delivery openings on the underside thereof for delivering the fodder, a conveyor for conveying fodder through the conduit, and a dispensing device by means of which the fodder emerging from fodder delivery openings is delivered in an accurately dispensed quantity into a fodder trough situated below it.
A cattle feeding device of this kind is known, for example, from German Auslegeschrift No. 1,607,062. In this known device, the dispensing device consists of a distribution container into which the fodder coming out of the fodder delivery openings falls, and which is half as long as the fodder trough. This distribution container has a delivery opening at each of its two ends and can be moved at a regular speed backwards and forwards between the ends of the trough in such a manner that its upper opening always remains below the delivery openings in the fodder delivery conduit. Inside the distribution container there is a reversible conveying element which conveys fodder in the direction of movement of the distribution container and travels at the same speed in relation to the distribution container as the distribution container itself moves over the fodder trough. An even distribution of the fodder along the length of the trough is thus achieved.
Apart from the fact that with the above described known device no particular degree of dispensing accuracy can be achieved, as this is dependent essentially on the regularity of delivery of quantities of fodder from the delivery conduit, the device is expensive and subject to interruptions because of the moving parts as well as the drive mechanisms necessary for these.
The object of the invention is to provide an animal feeding device which distinguishes itself by a simple construction, i.e. features few moving parts, and which can be regulated to provide an accurately dispensed amount of feed in a continuously variable manner while ensuring, at the same time, that the feed is evenly distributed along the length of the feed trough.